THE EDITOR: I took my departure from TSTT via the VSEP route in early 2005, after 25 years of service. In 2009, I received calls from former colleagues who claimed they were being bullied in to signing on to the defunct Telco Plan, although most of them entered the company after the merger and so were never part of Telco.
The CWU huffed and puffed but did nothing.
The result of this move is that contributors to the plan are getting as low as $600 per month, while some non-contributors receive as much as $65,000 per month.
In 2013, retirees agitated to correct this inequity. In mid-2021, the company made an offer to give prorated increases totalling $300 million, which was the employees’ contribution to the almost $1 billion surplus.
This offer was rejected with no counter-proposal or explanation for the offer being rejected.
Regularly, we, the retirees, get news of the passing of a former co-worker, many of whom were living below the poverty line, while the CWU slow-walks the negotiations.
Older retirees are still stuck with subsistence-level pensions, while recently retired and retrenched workers are about to receive significant increases.
It is mind-boggling, jaw-dropping and stomach-churning to see the those who are supposed to be representing us fix up themselves in plain sight. literally at our expense.
Please, Mr Prime Minister, please, TSTT CEO, give us something from our own money and contributions made over the years and decades.
KEITH GONZALES
TSTT retiree
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